From the Better Late Than Never Department here at Cayem.com come my picks for the top five online community management blog posts from February.
1. Listen to Your Community, But Don’t Let Them Tell You What to Do
In real life, we get lots of advice. Most of us have the good sense not to heed all of it. We look for the good nuggets and politely ignore the rest. Community managers need to treat the feedback from their communities the same way. Jeff Atwood dishes out some valuable, albeit frank advice when he writes that “90% of all community feedback is crap.” The key, he writes, is to listen carefully to everything the community says so you can benefit from the other 10%.
2. Establishing The Value Of Online Communities
Another “tough love” post, this time from Richard Millington. Richard reminds us that community managers that can’t establish the value of their communities have only themselves to blame when they don’t get the support they need. Richard reminds us a community only provides value when it increases sales, decreases costs, or (in the case of non-profits) fulfills an organization’s mission.
3. What Are Your Goals for Your Online Community?
Starting an online community without understanding your goals is just plain stupid. Deb Ng reminds us that every community is different, and so are each community’s goals. But once you know what your goals are, Deb provides useful tips on how to build a community that will achieve them.
4. 3 Keys for Launching a Forum
“Forums are the greatest vehicles for community development.” Amen, Judi Huck! In this post, Judi has some great advice for those launching a new forum: Start with a select number of members and a simple platform, add features slowly and carefully, and keep your eye on usage data to make sure that the features you do add make the community more engaging.
5. 7 Ways to Bring Your Community into the Content Creation Process
As community managers, we’re keenly aware that valuable content is one of the best ways to bring people in to a community. But if you’re the only one providing valuable content, you’re doing something wrong. True community happens when both you and your members are providing useful content. Georgy Cohen has some ideas on engaging would-be content creators in your community.
Did I miss any great community management posts from February? Please let me know with a comment.
Photo credit: N-ino